Cooking Indian chicken Cary with Basmati rice.

There are numerous times that i have referred to food as one of the most interesting experiences of a journey! I love ethnic cuisine as much as i love the Greek one and always when traveling i make sure i taste the various local dishes and enjoy whatever tasteful food it offers me. Unfortunately when the journey comes to an end, only the memories remain. Memories of people, sights, places and of course food. I still remember the spaghetti i was eating in Italy, as well as the delicious Couscous in Tunisia. In Thailand the local Pad Thai introduced me to the Asian cuisine and the various Cary dishes traveled me to distant India, which i haven’t manage to visit yet! Someone can cover this absence of ethnic food either by visiting one of the many ethnic restaurants or by simply cooking it, as i do. Returning from journeys made me feel the need to bring back some of the flavors i had tasted, so i started cooking a variety of dishes. That’s exactly how i cooked, the other day, chicken Cary with Basmati rice. That’s how i cooked it:

The ingredients:

Small boneless pieces of chicken. Around 500gr for 2 people couple ( The female usually eats less ).

Chopped onion as much as you think that is needed plus some fresh for the end.

One box of yogurt.

The spices i used were cary powder, turmeric powder, garam masala ( mixture of spices that you can easily find in convenient stores ), ginger powder, coriander powder, paprika, salt and pepper. One table spoon is enough, but even if you put more it will still be delicious.

Two cups of Basmati rice ( put one more if you like it ).

Some pieces of green pepper.

Now as for the preparation:

In high heat, in a wok i poured olive oil and placed the chicken pieces until they turned white on the outside.

Then i removed them and i put the chopped onion, which i started to stir-fry. Next, after a while, i placed the chicken again in the wok, covering all the ingredients with the spices.

I stir-fried well and poured some water in the wok. If you have a boiler, make sure you heat the water up firstly.

The mixture had already taken an amazing unique color, due to the turmeric and the flavors reminded me of it’s Indian origins. The Cary powder combined with the garam masala created an incredible exotic taste. I left the mixture to simmer for about 20 minutes and then i poured the yogurt. The presence of the yogurt helps the sauce to thicken. I let it simmer for another 10 minutes in medium fire, adding water when i thought it was necessary. Just before the end i added the green peppers, which need the lesser time to get ready. I then turned the ring off and i stirred the content throwing the small portion of the fresh onions.

As for the rice, i put it in a pot full with water and i added a bit of salt. I left it there for about 20 minutes. Then i placed the pot on my kitchen’s ring and turned the heat on. When it started boiling i left it for 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes i drain the rice. I left some of the water into the pot to continue boiling and placed the drainer with the rice on the top of the pot for another 5 minutes. The steam from the boiling water helps to make the rice crispy.

The final result was, both optically and tastefully, very close to the food i had tasted when traveling abroad. There are of course differences concerning the ingredients i used, since some of them are hard to be found in Greece.

You can serve the dish with tortillas pies and there you have a glance of what you will be eating if you visit India!! It is a very healthy dish, personally i didn’t make it spicy, since i didn’t use chili powder or hot peppers. Of course if you like spice foods, feel free to use the ingredients of your taste.

That was it! Overall it took less than an hour. Obviously you can use pork as well, which requires more time to simmer. With simple ingredients and spices you can get everywhere, with imagination and a lot of will you can easily and quickly cook something totally different, something exotic. A small taste of India on you table. Enjoy your food.

Disclaimer :

Both the recipe and the way of preparation that you read probably differs more or less form the one you know. I am not a cook, i simply enjoy food, so everything is done using my imagination. The quantities are not precisely measured so use as much as you think is good for you. The result of the recipe was pretty close to the original food i ate while traveling in Asia. Do not try this at home if you like fully following cooking recipes step by step. 🙂 🙂 🙂